Advocacy Competition Updates

Penn Law Team Wins Patent Law Moot Court Regionals

Congratulations to 3Ls Taylor Gooch and Ben Sirolly, who won the western regional competition of the AIPLA’ Giles S. Rich National Patent Law Moot Court this past weekend. Taylor and Ben competed as a part of Prof. Polk Wagner’s patent law appellate advocacy class.

Taylor and Ben beat a field of 21 teams. On their way to taking the regionals overall, they also won the awards for best Appellant and best Appellee brief. They now go on to compete at the National finals at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC in April.

One additional note: this is the third year in a row and fourth of the last five that Penn has won the competition. Congratulations and thanks go to Prof. Wagner!

March 19

Penn Law Mock Trial Team Advances To National Student Trial Advocacy Competition

Congratulations to Julia Simon-Mishel (3L), Jennifer Berman (3L), Niketa Patel (2L), and Brandon Harper (2L), who won the regional round in the American Association For Justice’s Student Trial Advocacy Competition (“STAC”), defeating fourteen teams from law schools across the Northeast.

Penn Law’s team will now advance to compete in the STAC National Championship against the other regional champions from schools across the country. Two of the Penn Law STAC competitors, Niketa Patel and Brandon Harper, were also members of the mock trial team that won the National Championship in the ABA’s Labor & Employment Trial Advocacy Competition this past January. Both Englert, who advises Penn’s Mock Trial Group, served as coach in both competitions

March 11

Congratulations to the National Moot Court Team

Congratulations to Penn’s National Moot Court Team, Joe Branco, Rachel Levick, and Julia Simon-Mishel. The team won their Regional Round in November, also winning the Best Brief Award and Best Oral Advocate for Rachel. Last week they competed against 30 teams in the National Finals in New York, where they placed 11th and received the third-highest brief score in the competition. The team worked incredibly hard. They thank the many faculty members and fellow students who mooted them along the way.

February 5

Penn Law Team Wins ABA Labor Mock Trial

Congratulations go to Brandon Harper, Philip May, Niketa Patel, and Arianna Scavetti, who have won the National Championship in the ninth annual American Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Trial Advocacy Competition. This year’s case involved a complex set of facts in which a sixty year-old plaintiff alleged that his employment was terminated as a result of age discrimination.

Three hundred and ninety-two law students from ninety-eight teams across the country competed at eight regional tournaments, which were held in November 2012. Penn’s team first won the Washington, D.C. regional competition. The winners of each of the eight regional competitions advanced to the national finals, which were held on January 26-27 at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in Dallas, Texas.

At the national finals, Penn Law advanced through two preliminary rounds and the semi-finals before defeating the New York regional champion, Quinnipiac Law School, in the final round. The Honorable Bernice B. Donald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit presided over the final round of the competition.

The competition judges and Judge Donald praised Penn Law’s advocacy skills, professionalism, and courtroom presence. Judge Donald further honored the students when she observed that the advocates presented their case “much better than many attorneys who are currently being paid to try cases.”

The Penn Law team was coached by attorney Robert Englert, a Philadelphia trial lawyer and an adjunct Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania. After the team won the Washington, D.C. regional competition, attorney Stephen Console, a renowned employment discrimination lawyer in Philadelphia, was consulted to assist the competitors in further refining their arguments in support of the Plaintiff’s discrimination case at the national level.

The competitors received general trial advocacy training under Englert’s supervision at weekly trial advocacy workshops presented at the law school. “I am very clear with my students that I will only provide them with the skills, techniques, and resources they will need to try a case. The students must develop their own theories, defenses and presentations so they are able to adapt to the uncertainties they will face in the courtroom,” said Englert. “My role is to foster those skills in my students so they have the ability to try their own cases both in competition and eventually on behalf of real clients. The students deserve the credit for the manner in which they ultimately tried their case.”

The Penn Law Mock Trial Team is a student-run organization currently comprised of more than forty (40) active first, second and third-year law students. The team is self-governed by the student Mock Trial Executive Board, including third-year students Julia Simon-Mishel (President), Jennifer Berman (Vice President); and second-year students Vinay Limbachia (Treasurer), and Jaren Wilkerson (Alumni Chair).